Tag Archives: fight scene reference

I found this video on Youtube, I think it’s Paul Vunak from his Jeet Kune Do instructional video series “Jeet Kune Do Concepts & Filipino Martial Arts” but unfortunately it’s uncredited. (If I’m wrong, someone correct me.) The quality isn’t great (it’s from the 1980s, before the invention of DVDs or streaming) which makes reading his chart all but impossible and it’s long (43 minutes). I don’t expect you to stick around for the full thing.

However, I hope you all stick it out through the first five minutes (at least) because he covers the concept of “ranges”. Ranges are based on the distance from the opponent when the body’s different weapons become useable. I identify them as “kicking, punching, grabbing, grappling”, Vunak identifies them as “kicking, boxing, grabbing, grappling”. Same difference. In the video he walks the viewer through each of the different stages and describes what they mean with visual examples.

When you know nothing about physical combat and even if you do, understanding these ranges will be useful for when you’re sitting down to write your fight scene and have difficulty visualizing how it works. It helps for getting a feel for exactly how close your characters are when they start and how quickly it’s going to progress as the space between the two combatants compresses.

One thing you’ll notice in the video is that Vunak doesn’t stay within the separate ranges as he performs his techniques. Each technique brings him closer and into a different range. This is part of why the Maxim of “all fights end up on the ground” is true. Kicking range brings you into punching range, punching range closes to grabbing, and grabbing transitions into grappling.

Basically it will help you get a handle on:

“How close does my character need to be for a kick?”

“How close do they need to be for a punch?”

“How close do they need to be for an elbow or a knee?”

This video will help you figure out those distinctions and avoid some of the more silly descriptions that end up plaguing author’s fight scenes.

The most important lesson I learned in my poetry seminars is that every word must earn it’s place on the page. When writing a scene, the goal is to create a visual impression in the readers. We use words to evoke an image, to evoke an emotional reaction and each word has it’s special place in helping to convey this sense to the reader. The words you choose, the order you put them in, where they are placed on the page, and what they sound like when read in a line are all phenomenally important parts of the writing craft. They are the means by which we create these images and how these images become memorable stories.

A single verb can change the mood and feeling of a scene, even when describing the same action. This is why careful word choice is important when writing fight scenes. Clarity is key but so is synergizing the action you want with the mood you want to convey. The level of violence can change depending on the meaning behind the word, it can change the shape of what a technique looks like in a reader’s mind. So, when choosing verbs think through what a word means. What image does it conjure in your mind?

Lashed

Slammed

Rammed

Whacked

Here’s an example:

Seizing Larry by his collar, Jennifer slammed him into the wall.

What is a slam? In this context, it’s a very violent shove. Slam is a hard, powerful word. It emphasizes a sense of power, but also control.

Compare:

Seizing Larry by his collar, Jennifer pushed him into the wall.

A push is still a violent action in this context, but the word is softer and gentler than the hard, powerful sound of slam.

Compare:

Seizing Larry by his collar, Jennifer shoved him into the wall.

Shoved is more violent than pushed, but less violent than slammed. It’s a rough word, but without the same raw sense of physical power and domination.

Finally:

Seizing Larry by his collar, Jennifer rammed him into the wall.

Rammed is perhaps more violent than slammed, it’s also more direct. When we use the word rammed, we might think of a battering ram or a charging ram. It’s a direct, forceful action propelling Larry back into the wall. However, the same sense of control we had in slam isn’t there with rammed. Ram feels a little angrier, more violent.

Think about what sort of action you’re using and the personality of the character in question. What sort of person are they? How much force would they use? Can they control it? What do their strikes feel like? Wild and uncontained? Tight and controlled?

This is worth testing during your editing, don’t get too caught up in it during the first draft phase. But, if you want, pull out a sheet of paper and just test it out. Write a sentence, maybe involving a punch or kick and try different verbs to change the effect.

Well, you’re going to have to settle on what kind of stick you’re using: such as a baton or staff because length is important. You’re also going to have to designate what kind of staff fighting they’ve been trained in because techniques differ based on style. Depending on the era, a secret agent may get more use out of Filipino Eskrima stick techniques than he or she would out of a bo staff because one can be hidden fairly easily while the other is more common. A spy does not carry weapons that make them stand out in a crowd. A staff is a long arm and thus a very tall weapon, if the spy does not exist in a culture where carrying a staff is common (such as modern day US) then they will forgo it entirely.

A spy may carry a staff in a historical setting when they were common, such as Medieval Europe, or appropriate corresponding periods in China and Japan when looking to pass for a specific kind of peasant or soldier.

However, depending on where they are going, a spy may choose to carry a tactical baton on their person. A tactical baton is a police weapon, it folds up easily and can slip into a pocket. However, they are illegal to own in most states without a permit. It’s also meant for tagging someone in the back of the skull. It is meant to hand out a single pounding, not take a pounding from another weapon.

Staffs and sticks are bashing weapons. They don’t stab or cut, instead they cause blunt force trauma. They are very effective weapons. However, if you’re feeling cheesy, a wooden stick can be snuck past a metal detector (but not an x-ray machine) and people whether it’s onlookers or guards will remember the person who fought with the wooden stick because it’s unusual.

If you want to have a secret agent who specializes in stick fighting in the modern day, then they only have one real option: a cane. An umbrella would also work, but many people will wonder why your spy is carrying an umbrella if they are traveling to a place where rain is not a constant. A wooden cane is justifiable, easy to explain, and carry into places that normally would not allow them. It can also be taken places where a tactical baton would be discovered and removed.

However, while a cane is an excellent self-defense weapon, it can get tricky in modern combat if you’re spy is not acting via surprise. A cane does not have an advantage against a gun that is already drawn. A cane has a reach advantage against someone with a knife, but lacks being comparably lethal. The kills will also be fairly recognizable and they will take longer.

The short of it is: while training in combat with sticks is justifiable for a spy, it’s unlikely to be their specialty. In the modern world, a spy needs to be trained on a variety of guns, knives, and in a variety of hand to hand styles to be successful. A cane may look odd on someone who does not fake a limp or is not elderly and a fake limp is difficult to maintain long term. If a character is using the cane to support their own weight because their leg can’t maintain it on it’s own then they’ll have difficulty fighting with it. (This won’t stop someone with a limp from being a spy.) In the modern world, it’s not a sharp choice because there are better ones available.

Remember: a spy isn’t looking to stand out, they want to blend in and disappear. Pick styles and weapons that fit into the frame of who they are pretending to be and ones that reflect the culture (and social status) they exist in.

Don’t be sorry! Writing about fighting when you have no practical experience is a difficult challenge and writing fight sequences when you do is still time consuming. There are a lot pieces working together and figuring out how they function is difficult and something very few writers actually do well.

Also check anything in our Michael Janich tag, he is a very good instructor who teaches self-defense. I refer people to his videos for the work he does with concepts, where he actively explains what a technique is, what it does, and why it’s used before teaching the technique. As a writer, you need both technique and concept before you can put it on the page.

I plan on doing a write up on both elbows and knees in the near future. There’s a lot of misconceptions about how these techniques work.

Also check out Tamora Pierce’s Tortall series particularly First Test and Page in The Protector of the Small quartet. Tamora Pierce is one of the few authors that write fight scenes I feel comfortable recommending for reference.